India's home appliance market will usher in a new round of expansion.
The leader is from China. Haier, Midea, TCL, Xiaomi is entering India in a big way. Haier with demonstration effect has established a good reputation in India and built a good channel path.
Everything is in the water.
On September 7, Haier held a signing ceremony in the second industrial park in northern India. This is another big investment in Haier in India after Haier set up its first industrial park in Pune in southern India in 2017.
Haier is very foresighted. It entered India in 2004. This is the first Chinese home appliance brand to enter the Indian market.
Midea invested in India later than Haier. They announced in 2017 that they plan to invest 8 billion rupees (about 840 million yuan) to build a manufacturing plant in the western Indian city of Pune. It is expected to be put into production by the end of 2018.
TCL's actions are later than the above. However, they put forward a clear goal of entering India. TCL Group Chairman Li Dongsheng publicly told the media at the IFA exhibition in Germany on September 1 that TCL will focus on the Indian market.
In fact, TCL TV has already entered India, and the market has responded well. This laid the foundation for TCL White to enter India in the future.
Xiaomi can't be defined as a home appliance company. But Xiaomi color TV is forming an upward trend in India, just like the early millet mobile phone entering India, or disrupting the spring market of Indian color TV market.
Based on the great success of Xiaomi mobile phone in India, if Xiaomi TV has better synergy with Xiaomi mobile phone, then Xiaomi TV will have great advantages in terms of brand, channel and cognition.
Rapidly developing India, the demand for consumer electronics, similar to China in the 1990s, is on the eve of the outbreak.
Chinese home appliance brands have entered India collectively. On the one hand, Chinese brands are favored by Indian consumers; on the other hand, Chinese brands have more and more advantages in terms of technology, quality and service.
In emerging markets, the gap between Chinese brands and Japanese and Korean brands is narrowing, which is a positive for Chinese home appliance brands.
However, Chinese home appliance brands have entered the Indian market and cannot follow the old path of the Chinese market. They cannot ignore the Japanese and Korean brands, especially South Korea's Samsung and LG's 'Yuwei' in the Indian market.
In India, Blue Technology has summarized three suggestions through in-depth research with different groups of small and medium-sized channel vendors, consumers, experts, scholars, and college students.
The summary points are all from the Indian folk, they represent the trend of India to a certain extent. Chinese home appliances brands want to have a better space for development in India, these three must-read items must not be missed.
First, precision marketing needs to target male groups rather than female groups.
The Indian market has its particularity. Because women's status in the family is not high, most of the choices for home appliance purchase are dominated by male rights. Therefore, Chinese home appliance brands need to use social marketing in the male group to influence potential consumers.
A set of data shows that 85% of men in rural India have the right to purchase decision-making; in cities, 70% of men have the right to make purchase decisions. For home appliances, color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, etc., Indian men have The right to purchase decision-making.
It can be said that affecting these male groups and allowing male groups to accept Chinese brands will have a multiplier effect.
On the other hand, smartphones are in the ascendant in the Indian market, and one of the biggest characteristics of Indian consumers is that they like selfies. The male group also likes to take various photos and share them in their circle of friends. The Chinese national brands can pass the male group. Hobbies, carry out various forms of offline activities, thus affecting these potential groups.
Second, do not fight the price war and want to focus on quality and high-end
Indian consumers prefer Chinese goods to a certain extent, because there are many styles that meet the demands of Indian consumers. But at the same time, their understanding of Chinese brands is cheap.
Chinese home appliance brands entering the Indian market should not attract consumers at low prices. Otherwise, this is very unfavorable for long-term brand building.
Samsung LG has a strong user base in the Indian market, but they are not winning at low prices. Nowadays, the consumption inertia of many consumers in India is still habitually choosing Korean brands. Of course, these consumers are also accepting other brands.
For example, Haier has developed rapidly in India in recent years, not relying on price wars, but by strengthening brand, service, quality and creating demand for Indian consumers. In the case of refrigerators, some of the same models of Haier refrigerators are more expensive than Samsung and LG. However, Haier is still growing rapidly in the refrigerator industry, because they have designed a non-bending box refrigerator for Indian consumers, and began to attract peers to follow Haier.
If Chinese home appliance brands enter the Indian market and focus on low prices, I believe that they can attract many consumers. After all, India is in its infancy, with limited consumption, and low-priced products will be favored by the rural market in the short term.
But in the long run, the main low price will have great drawbacks. Once consumers label these brands with low prices, then there is a big obstacle to launching high-end brands.
It is not even ruled out that there may be peers who make big fuss about low-end low prices to smash Chinese brands, thus affecting Chinese home appliance brands to establish high-end and high-quality images in India.
Third, improve logistics speed and after-sales service
Another characteristic of the Indian market is that the efficiency of the work is relatively low. The reporter had experienced an air-conditioning maintenance in Pune, India.
When making an appointment by phone, I promised to go to the door after two days of repair. But on the third day, due to other reasons, I was unable to provide repair service.
Not complying with the agreement, the logistics speed is slow, the after-sales service repair time is relatively long, this is a common problem in the Indian market.
Once Chinese home appliance brands can solve the above problems, establish after-sales service, keep punctual and trustworthy and improve logistics speed, then there will be obvious advantages.
Many Chinese people who have worked and lived in India have a deep understanding. The efficiency of Indians is much higher than that of China. However, once Chinese brands can break the original pattern in India and further improve work efficiency, this Will be very sticky to the user.
While we are entering the Indian drums for Chinese home appliances, we also want to give some suggestions to Chinese home appliance brands. Pay attention to and improve the above three issues. Perhaps Chinese home appliance brands will take a lot of detours in India.